A wide variety of spray apparatuses for applying liquids, such as paint, varnish, cleaning solvents, or other liquid materials to a surface are known. Typically, such spray apparatuses include a reservoir containing the liquid and a spray apparatus configured to spray the liquid in the reservoir. The liquid from the reservoir may be gravity fed or pressure fed to the spray apparatus by an air bleed from the compressed air line to the reservoir.
One conventional reservoir is a rigid pot attached to the spray gun apparatus with a removable lid. The reservoir is re-usable and should be thoroughly cleaned when changing the liquid in the reservoir in order to prevent contaminating the new liquid that is poured into the reservoir. However, cleaning the reservoir and, if needed, the spray gun apparatus is time consuming and may require the use of solvents that are costly and may be a health hazard to the operator.
Another conventional reservoir employs a collapsible liner that is placed within a rigid reservoir. During use, the liquid is withdrawn from the collapsible liner and, after spraying, the collapsed liner and lid can be removed and thrown away allowing a new, clean liner and lid to be used for applying a different liquid. While the collapsible liner is useful because the rigid reservoir does not have to be cleaned as often, it can be difficult to install and remove the liner within the rigid reservoir. Furthermore, sometimes not all of the paint in the liner is used, and this un-used paint can be difficult to recover from the liner.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a more user friendly disposable reservoir. It would also be desirable that such a reservoir be cheap to fabricate and transport, and suitable for use with a variety of conventional spray gun apparatuses.